Something Like Family
by ncfan
Summary: Nanao and Lisa, from start to finish. Spoilers for Turn Back the Pendulum and Fake Karakura Town Arcs. Contains a bit of a twist ending.


**Characters**: Nanao, Lisa, with mentions of others.**  
Pairings**: slight Shunsui x Nanao**  
Warnings/Spoilers**: Spoilers for Turn Back the Pendulum arc and vague spoilers for Fake Karakura Town arc.**  
Timeline**: Set during pre-manga, Turn Back the Pendulum arc, and during Fake Karakura Town arc.**  
Author's Note**: Just thought I'd do something on their relationship.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own Bleach.

* * *

Nanao was the youngest student in her Academy class, as well as the smallest, her tiny, bony limbs making the more physical aspects of the class difficult at times. The fact that every one of her classmates had at least two feet of height on her didn't help at all.

And what also didn't help (didn't help her already injured pride, anyway) was Nanao's strong suspicion that her classmates were going easy on her. She couldn't be sure, but the way they were looking at her—weary expressions that indicated they weren't too keen on fighting a child—tended to indicate that to Nanao. She saw it every time she trained with her classmates, and the cloying sensation of being sheltered never failed to make her unhappy.

Nanao couldn't be more happy then when class was dismissed.

After class was over, she would go outside and sit on the front steps of the Academy, watching as the older students milled around, before heading to different sections of Seireitei or back to the dormitories. Nanao huddled on the stone steps, arms laced around her knees, as the wind whistled through the autumn leaves and kicked up a storm of tawny red all around her. Nanao liked the weather better this way, when it was crisp but not too cold.

Eventually, Nanao became aware of the sensation of eyes staring at the back of her neck, as the skin there prickled, and she looked around, with a frown that more resembled a childish pout.

When she turned, she found eyes the color of jade meeting her own blue-violet ones.

There was a woman standing in one of the tall, long vertical windows, the glass panes thrown open, looking down, directly at Nanao. The woman was dressed in a Shinigami's uniform, though the skirt of the kimono didn't even come to her knees (_She must be cold, _Nanao decided_, dressing like that in fall_). She had black hair done in braids, green eyes, and oval-shaped glasses with red frames. She was giving Nanao an odd sort of look, a strange mixture of closed-off guardedness and sadness, peeking out from under an impassive mask. Nanao felt extremely uncomfortable under her scrutiny.

"Hello," Nanao called uncertainly, meeting the woman's gaze unabashedly, though she did feel her face color slightly. "Do you want to sit down?"

At that, the woman gracefully slid through the open window, fluid despite the obvious impediment her short skirt must have imposed, and came and sat down by Nanao. It may have just been Nanao's imagination, but she seemed almost relieved to have been given an invitation.

"Your name is Ise Nanao, isn't it?" The Shinigami's level, slightly rasping voice reached Nanao's ears after a little while; she had paused, trying to find something to say to the young student, strangely hesitant.

Nanao nodded, pulling up her best smile, which was admittedly a little rusty since she didn't smile that way very often. "Yes, ma'am."

"My name is Lisa," the dark-haired Shinigami introduced herself. "How have your classes been?"

Not stopping to wonder why Lisa was concerned at all, Nanao launched into her story. "They're alright, I guess. I have a hard time training with the other students since I'm so much smaller than them, though." Nanao frowned pensively. "I wish there were some students who were the same size as me."

Lisa smiled, a sympathetic half-smile, as she tipped her head with its neatly combed bangs and black braids towards Nanao. "A lot of the very young students have this difficulty," she confided in a whisper, as if they were sharing some sort of conspiracy. "There's a reason the graduation exams don't just include physical prowess and skill in combat." Lisa began talking in normal tones. "I spend a lot of time observing the classes here. You're very good at kido, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Then you should do fine." Lisa's face softened for a moment, like ice melting off of a glacier. She was still sad though, and Nanao noticed. Then, a man called from inside the Academy, his deep voice bouncing off the walls, and Lisa stood up, her face reassuming its stony, icy mask. "I'm coming," she replied to the voice, which had been calling her name.

Before leaving, Lisa looked down at Nanao one last time. She opened her mouth, and seemed to be searching for words to say to Nanao, but couldn't find them. A small hand patted the little girl's shoulder, before Lisa disappeared back into the Academy.

Nanao was left to wonder what it was that had put that strange, shifting sadness on Lisa's face when they spoke. "That was weird," she muttered, staring down at her shoes. It was only later that Nanao realized that their faces were near-mirror images of each other, and that that bothered her too.

.

Even after she had graduated, Nanao was frustrated by the knowledge that her peers still towered over her. Yes, Nanao knew that she was a child, but her former classmates were only a few years older than her, and yet they were all so much bigger than her and better-developed.

Five of that year's graduates had been sent to the Eighth division; Nanao was one of them. At present, the five rookie Shinigami wandered the picturesque grounds of the division headquarters, looking for someone in charge to direct them to their quarters and explain their duties. They wandered aimlessly, uncomfortable in the new, still-stiff black linen of their work kimonos, feeling as if they didn't fit them, and the zanpakutos they wore were an unfamiliar, heavy weight at their waists. Nanao's wakizashi dragged the ground unless she half-carried it in her hand.

Just as they were starting to step into the main building, a woman in a standard uniform with an abbreviated skirt stepped out from one of the rooms, and stood to face them.

Nanao started, her round eyes widening behind her glasses. It was Lisa.

The young Shinigami just barely managed to stifle a cry of "Lisa-san!" when she saw the badge tied to the older Shinigami's left arm. A jolt of shock went through her. Lisa was the lieutenant of the Eighth division.

Lisa herself did not miss a beat, and didn't seem to notice Nanao standing with the other four graduates. "Welcome to the Eighth division," she stated, her low voice fluctuating not even slightly, cool jade eyes surveying them impassively. "I am Yadomaru Lisa, the lieutenant of this division. Do any of you have any questions before you're escorted to your quarters?"

One of the young men raised a hand. A gasp of wind fluttered through before he spoke. "Yadomaru-fukutaicho, if you don't mind me asking, where is Kyouraku-taicho?" Nanao frowned as she looked up at her classmate; his brown eyes shone earnestly. "I was under the impression that the captain of a division was supposed to greet the new arrivals."

Lisa's thin mouth tightened slightly, though whether or not due to disapproval Nanao couldn't tell. It wasn't like Lisa's face was an open book. "Kyouraku-taicho can't be here today, I'm afraid. He's indisposed."

The other male student, a slight blond only about five years older than Nanao, tilted his head in concern. "Is he sick?"

The thin line of the lieutenant's mouth grew even thinner, but a wicked gleam, noticeable, Nanao realized, only to herself, appeared, making the jade of Lisa's eyes seem a little less glacial. With a completely straight face, she drawled, "No. Kyouraku-taicho got extremely drunk last night, and he's still sleeping off the hangover. He made a bit of a fool of himself, and he's still licking his wounded pride; I don't think you'll be seeing any trace of him for the next few days."

_Wow. The quality's really gone down if no one bats an eye to public drunkenness in their captain_.

Nanao's two female peers, pretty girls with the appearance of teenagers, tittered and shared knowing looks. For once, Nanao was glad she didn't understand the nuances of adult culture, because she didn't like the over-bright gleam she saw in the eyes of the two young women.

Lisa impressed Nanao by ignoring them and behaving as though the exchange concerning Kyouraku-taicho's habits had never taken place, waving them on. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you around."

As the rookie Shinigami began to mill into the main building of the Eighth division, Nanao felt a familiar hand on her shoulder.

Lisa was showing the tiniest hint of a smile on her chiseled, attractive face. "I told you," she murmured. "I said you'd do well."

Nanao couldn't help but smile back.

.

Nanao couldn't honestly say when she became Lisa's small, autonomous shadow. Most saw them walking through the division headquarters and simply assumed that Lisa had recruited her as an assistant to help her wade through the piles of paperwork that tended to pool in the office, thanks to Kyouraku's insistence on procrastination and drunkenness.

In truth, Nanao just followed Lisa around because she felt like it, and because she had so much spare time on her hands, seeing as her size and level of training didn't permit her being sent on missions yet.

Her time spent trailing after Lisa's footsteps gave Nanao time to observe the lieutenant's strange relationship with Kyouraku-taicho.

Kyouraku-taicho was in himself a strange man, unlike any man Nanao had ever met, and she wasn't sure whether she liked him or not. He never seemed to notice her where she stood, at least Nanao didn't think she did, and that gave her ample opportunity to look him over and observe his behaviors.

The captain of the Eighth division was a very big man, towering over Nanao and Lisa whenever the three of them happened to meet in the hallways. And he was, Nanao noticed, not at all concerned with anything regarding decorum or proper behavior. He always had a bottle of sake in hand or tucked into his sash, and his manner of dress was so informal as to almost seem slovenly. Almost. Kyouraku-taicho knew how to straddle the line of proper and indecent, she had to give him that.

But what was even more shocking was the way Lisa and Kyouraku-taicho spoke to each other. Specifically, that they used no honorifics and seemed to be on first name terms with each other.

Nanao would never have presumed to address the captain of any division by their given name, not even Hirako-taicho, who was probably the least formal of the lot and wouldn't have really minded. But Lisa referred to Kyouraku-taicho as "Shunsui" as though she'd been doing it her entire life, and as though the man she was referring to wasn't her superior officer.

The first time this happened, Lisa suddenly caught Nanao's eye, looking back and down at her. There was a humorous gleam in Lisa's eye, and when she registered Nanao's shock at the behavior of the two adults with her, that gleam became absolutely wicked. Lisa winked.

Nanao frowned pensively, then smiled only slightly. Lisa flashed a grin that indicated to Nanao that she was treating it as some sort of huge conspiracy, a ghastly secret she was asking Nanao to keep. All in jest, of course.

Saying nothing, and certainly not objecting to the behavior of her lieutenant and captain, Nanao continued to follow in Lisa's shadow. It was one secret she was happy to keep.

.

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

Another small streak of blood went flying through the air.

"I know you can do better, Nanao-chan!"

Nanao begged to differ. She could barely lift her zanpakuto, let alone use it, and how could Lisa honestly expect a rookie with the body of a six-year-old to be on par with the lieutenant of the Eighth division? Nanao would have asked that herself if she hadn't been concerned that it would have been disrespectful.

With a small grunt of pain, Nanao hit the grass, her zanpakuto falling out of her hand. The sweet smell of the grass rose around her, and she was gasping, trying desperately to catch her breath.

The sound of light footfalls grated on Nanao's ears like one of the awful operas Ukitake-taicho was so fond of playing. Nanao groaned and tried to get up, expecting another attack. A wash of panic rose over her when her limbs wouldn't respond, instead choosing to scream at her for pushing her body so far. Nanao sent up desperate prayers, that Lisa would at least allow her to get to her feet before she started to attack again.

It was impossible for Nanao to disguise her surprise when she found the hilt of her zanpakuto being offered to her. As she accepted it, Nanao looked up at Lisa's face and saw only impassiveness, not the impish humor or the odd sadness that she sometimes caught glimpses of. Only the mask, nearly as solid as the mask of a Hollow.

Lisa knelt by the small girl, sheathing her zanpakuto as she did so. "You're going to have to do better than that," Lisa said flatly, "if you ever want to survive in the Gotei Thirteen. I didn't even release my zanpakuto's shikai."

Nanao's face colored, and she looked away. "I know," the dark-haired girl muttered in shame. "It's just that—"

"Forget I said that," Lisa interposed quickly. She stared around at the spring scenery. "But while we're on the topic of your zanpakuto—" she put her hand under the crook of Nanao's arm and pulled her to her feet; they started to walk back towards the division headquarters "—how are you doing with achieving your shikai?"

Nanao shrugged, falling into her familiar position—well, not so familiar, seeing as she was walking beside Lisa instead of behind, matching Lisa's longer stride and faster pace only with difficulty. "I'm still working on it. But it's difficult."

"How is it difficult, Nanao-chan?" Lisa's rare sympathy was back, a salve to any cuts and bruises Nanao had sustained during training. Her low voice lulled Nanao into a state of relaxation, familiar and warm.

The question drew a sad smile from Nanao, her bluish violet eyes lowering towards the ground. "My zanpakuto doesn't really want to talk to me."

They were standing outside of Nanao's quarters; the plaque on the door gleamed with the familiar characters _'Ise Nanao_'.

"Well," Lisa replied, meeting her with a small smile that again melted the cool features of her face, "you'll just have to keep trying until you find the words your zanpakuto will listen to. In the meantime," she went on in a more normal tone of voice, "I think we'll focus on your kido skills instead. You're good at it, Nanao-chan, but you've still got a lot to learn."

"Okay."

Lisa, though slightly gruff, always knew what to say, and Nanao spent the rest of the day feeling much more cheerful.

.

"Yadomaru-fukutaicho?" Nanao had a very important question for Lisa. She was a little nervous, since it was also fairly invasive, and Lisa might take it the wrong way.

The cool spring air bombarded them both, with winds at high velocities. Lisa's long braids whipped around into her face, while Nanao's very short hair barely rustled in the stiff wind. Daffodils that had grown up early with the sudden lack of snow glistened white and gold thanks to a recent rain shower.

"Yes, Nanao-chan?"

Blinking shyly up at her lieutenant, Nanao asked, "Yadomaru-fukutaicho, why do you always wear such a short skirt? You must be cold in weather like this."

Meeting her question was the most explicit smile Nanao had seen on Lisa's face yet. "I wear my clothes like this," Lisa alleged playfully, a lively glint gleaming on her glasses, "because my legs look _good_, and I want people to know."

This answer was not the one Nanao was expecting, and she reacted the only way she knew how. "Oh…" Her eyes were widening behind the thick lenses of her glasses. "Gosh, I…never thought about it like that."

Lisa smirked. "You will when you're older."

.

A deep flush of embarrassment came over Nanao when her sudden sneeze—unwanted and uncalled-for—made Lisa groan in such a fashion.

Nanao could hear the crickets chirping outside the window, almost like a serenade. Though really not. The room was lit only due to the lantern and many candles Lisa had graciously supplied to aid Nanao's convalescence.

At the moment, Nanao was of the firm opinion that, if she survived (the slight fever was making her just a little melodramatic), she was going to declare war on all head colds, and by the forces of all that was good and pure, Nanao was determined that she would _win_.

"You really are sick, aren't you?" Lisa's brow was drawn up in worry, an expression Nanao had never seen on the usually confident woman before. Lisa knelt by the bed and put her hand to Nanao's brow, before removing the girl's glasses and putting them on the nightstand. "Is there anything you want, Nanao-chan?"

"Actually…" Nanao bit her lip, a little ashamed at how hoarse and rasping her voice was. "…I know this is going to sound pretty stupid, but…" Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper "…I'd like it if my grandmother were here."

A change came over Lisa's face at that moment, and Nanao, who was by now used to detecting and identifying Lisa's myriad facial expressions, could not identify this one. It was as if Lisa had erected the mask but there were cracks in that mask. What emotions were shining through, Nanao couldn't tell.

"Why your grandmother?" Lisa asked softly, her low voice as quiet as Nanao's. A strange gleam shone in her eyes. "Why not one of your parents?"

Nanao looked away, sinking deeper onto the pillow. "I was raised by my grandmother," she rasped; Lisa was just barely close enough that her face wasn't blurred, and she was listening as though drinking in a mission briefing. "She always told me that my parents had died just after I was born. I was born here, not back on Earth," Nanao explained. "My grandmother read to me every night before I came to Seireitei, even after I got too old for that sort of thing."

"Did your grandmother ever tell you anything about your parents?" If Nanao hadn't been feverish and on a myriad of medications to combat the fever, she would have noticed the stiff, urgent note in Lisa's voice. Lisa was counting on that.

Weakly, Nanao shook her head. "Just a little bit."

"What did she tell you?" Lisa had to fight down the urgency in her voice.

Nanao shrugged. "Just that they never married, and that they died soon after I was born. Ise is my father's family name."

"Well…" Lisa took the opportunity to turn the conversation in a completely different direction, though Nanao had no idea why. "How would you like it if I read to you tonight?" A poignant note made the timbre of her full voice rise and crack.

For one of the first times ever, Nanao's smile showed teeth. "I'd like that."

Suddenly, Lisa looked much happier. "Great! What book would you like me to read?"

Nanao told her.

Lisa's face fell. "You must be joking. Funny, Nanao-chan, I didn't think you capable of that, even while sick."

"I'm not joking, Yadomaru-fukutaicho."

Lisa shook her head in exasperation. "But why on earth do you want to read _Utopia_?" she exclaimed.

"Well, I've never read it before."

"You're going to hate it."

Nanao shot her most winning smile at Lisa, hoping it would work on her as it always had on her grandmother. "_Please_?" she implored, uncomfortably aware that her hoarse voice might negate the effect somewhat.

But time proved Nanao's fears to be groundless, because Lisa sighed and relented, drawing the thin book off of a bookshelf. "Fine. But next time, _I_ choose the book."

"Next time?" Nanao's bluish eyes lit up.

Lisa hesitated, then nodded. "Next time, yes. On the first day of the next month."

.

According to Lisa, what they were doing, sitting on the edge of the roof of one of the buildings of Seireitei, was an exercise in observation. To Nanao, it was more like something bordering on voyeurism, though if it gave her an excuse to be with Lisa, she wasn't complaining.

In the heat, summer starting to verge on fall again, Lisa pointed out two Shinigami, a tall, dark-haired man and a much smaller woman. "Do you know who those two Shinigami there are?"

Nanao realized it was a test, and frowned pensively, her legs swinging off the ledge of the roof, a childish habit she had never been able to break. "Well…" she murmured slowly, observing them as closely as she could for someone with impaired eyesight, from such a great distance. The woman was wearing a white haori that fluttered at her feet. "The woman's haori would indicate that she is a captain. Since the man wears no sort of insignia, I can only guess that he's a member of her division."

Lisa nodded approvingly. "That's right. The woman is Tachibana Chidori-taicho, the captain of the Tenth Division. The man with her is her third seat, Kurosaki Isshin. The lieutenant of the Tenth division has been very ill lately, and it's well known that he'll most likely be put on permanent medical leave soon. Tachibana-taicho has been grooming Kurosaki-san for the position of lieutenant for the past month now."

They continued to watch the gamut of Shinigami pass through the streets (Nanao even caught sight of the strange and bizarre third seat of the Twelfth division, Kurotsuchi Mayuri) for maybe just a few minutes, before Lisa turned to Nanao.

"I've got a new book for us to read this month. I think you'll like it."

Nanao smiled shyly. "Alright, Yadomaru-fukutaicho. Should I come at the same time tonight?"

"That should be good." Lisa lounged back casually, a languid, feline gesture as she braced herself on her palms. "Since it's a rather long book, I was thinking we would break with tradition and read every night until it's done. How does that sound?"

"That sounds wonderful."

Lisa's mood shifted without warning; that had been happening a lot lately. She could shift from cheerful to pensive, to melancholy to angry, all in the blink of an eye. "Nanao-chan?" There was a vulnerable quality in Lisa's voice that Nanao had never heard there before, tentative and sore. "When you come tonight, there's something we need to talk about." She paused, and licked her dry lips, refusing to cast cool jade eyes on the girl. "It's important."

"What do you want to talk about, Yadomaru-fukutaicho?" Nanao asked curiously, casting her wide-eyed gaze on the older Shinigami.

Lisa shook her head violently. "Never mind about that now, Nanao-chan. We'll talk tonight."

.

"Did you hear?"

A pregnant pause. "Yes."

Just as blasé as before, he asked, "Will you do it?"

Lisa shot a dull, half-glare at Shunsui, while still clutching the bars on the window. "Of course."

The flamboyantly dressed captain nodded and smiled slightly. "Get to it, then."

As Lisa took off, she frowned, and thought of Nanao. _I guess I'll have to break my promise to Nanao-chan, just for tonight. _She bit her lip, her stomach roiling. _I hope she'll understand._

…_About everything._

.

Clutching the thick, heavy book to her small, flat chest, Nanao didn't think she could be blamed for being nervous. She had never been alone with Kyouraku-taicho before; whenever she had been near him, it had been in Lisa's shadow, with Lisa's protective presence hovering over her.

The night was as dark as ink, that time, and Kyouraku-taicho stared down at her with an oddly gentle look on his face.

"But I'm sorry," he murmured, smiling and still keeping his large, rough hands hidden in his sleeves. "Lisa isn't here tonight."

"How come?" Nanao blurted out, hurt, before she could stop herself. _But she's always here on the first of the month…_

Kyouraku-taicho tilted his head slightly, as if to gaze at Nanao in a new light. "She has an important mission." Nanao's already large eyes widened. "Don't worry. She'll be back in the morning, I'm sure."

The big man sighed, staring around at the barracks. Then one hand withdrew from his sleeves, reaching towards Nanao in a purely innocuous sense. "It's late," Kyouraku-taicho told her with a benign smile. "Pretty little girls shouldn't be out so late at night. Come back with me now."

Nanao didn't take his hand, but did follow him, almost having to run to keep up with Kyouraku-taicho.

As they came back to the brightly lit corridors of the main headquarters, Kyouraku turned around and gazed down at Nanao. "If you like, Nanao-chan, I'll read with you for tonight."

Nanao frowned slightly. Only Lisa ever called her Nanao-chan. She shook her head. "Thank you, Kyouraku-taicho, but if you don't mind, I'd like to wait until Yadomaru-fukutaicho comes back."

Kyouraku paused for a moment, then made a small sound that was reminiscent of an indulgent, stifled laugh. His eyes sparkled with good-natured humor. "As you wish."

Sleep was denied Nanao that night, as she laid up in the dark and worried about Lisa.

.

Two days later, and Nanao found herself staring blankly out of a window, her elbows hunched strangely on the frame, as she sat on the window seat in the captain's office.

A rustle of linen and silk sounded behind her with the small sliding noise of the shoji doors being opened, and she looked around, eyes dull and heavy, to meet the eyes of Kyouraku-taicho.

Kyouraku didn't look any better than she felt. Oddly, he was sober, which was in and of itself unusual and alarming, but his eyes were bloodshot with bags under them, as if he had not been sleeping any lately. His shoulders were drooping slightly.

"She's not coming back, is she?" The question was flatly spoken, dull and almost angry.

Though he must have been expecting it, a flash of grief still flared in Kyouraku's eyes before it disappeared back into his unusually pale face. "No," he whispered. "She's not."

Nanao bit her lip, and looked down, her throat swelling shut.

"Nanao-chan…" Kyouraku momentarily reached out to touch her shoulder, but Nanao shook away as though she had been burned, her face contorting in an agonized display of pain before she went back to staring out the window. Her eyesight blurred.

Nanao hated it when anyone but Lisa called her Nanao-chan.

Kyouraku briefly squeezed her shoulder, a comforting gesture that fell on deaf ears, before he left, no doubt to the comfort of his liquor.

Nanao wouldn't be the only one doing anything and everything she could to forget Lisa that night.

.

Staring into the mirror, Nanao realized for the first time that her face had become a living shadow of Yadomaru Lisa.

There were subtle differences, of course. Nanao's face, though still chiseled with fine lines, just as Lisa's had been, was slightly softer in its shape, less unyielding in its lines. Her eyes were rounder and wider, a smooth blue-violet instead of Lisa's deep, almost brittle jade green orbs.

And of course, her voice was different. Different from Lisa's low, rasping, almost gravelly voice that had held all who heard it enthralled. Nanao was struck by how much she still missed that voice, so many years later.

It made so much sense. Nanao had absorbed Lisa's position, her place in the Eighth division and in Kyouraku's life. Now, her face was starting to reflect the way she had subsumed Lisa beneath the surface, in a futile, abortive attempt to forget her.

No one would ever forget Lisa. Especially not Nanao.

Nanao's gaze was drawn irresistibly to the thick tome that still sat on her dresser, gathering dust as it had lain untouched for the past fifty years.

She had never once attempted to read the book Lisa had wanted to read with her. And she never would now.

.

On Earth, at the same time Nanao was contemplating about masks and faces, Lisa sighed, relented. She went to the bookstore, bought a copy of _Ivanhoe_, sat down and started to read it.

She only hoped that Nanao would do the same.

.

The rubble cast out from around her feet like a sharp, jagged sea as Nanao picked her way through fallen beams and stone, and finally put a hand under the crook of her captain's arm, and helped him to his feet.

As Shunsui got to his feet and looked around, a huge hand engulfed the small one Nanao had slipped over his arm. She looked away and said nothing, preferring to contemplate the shrapnel at her feet instead, almost afraid of what she would see in Shunsui's face.

"Thanks, Nanao-chan." And Nanao forced herself to make eye contact with him again, exhausted, spent, bloody man that he was, leaning heavily on her small frame as they began to walk away from the scene, like so many of the other Shinigami who had come to defend the false Karakura Town. "You weren't hurt getting here, were you?" The old note of protectiveness had returned to his voice, something Nanao had once considered her bane, but found oddly comforting now.

"No, I wasn't."

As they were stumbling to a safe place, Shunsui's gaze was drawn to a place to the left of their path. Nanao followed the path his eyes made, and felt the color drain out of her face.

Shunsui was left to fend for himself as Nanao ran towards the sight of a long black braid.

Lisa was lying on her back, staring up at the gray winter sky, strangely detached, until she saw Nanao.

For herself, Nanao fell to her knees beside the prostrate Lisa, trying desperately to catch her breath but finding herself incapable of even that. All she could do was murmur, horribly shaken, "Yadomaru-fukutaicho?"

As Lisa recognized her with the cool jade eyes Nanao hadn't seen in over a century, the strange yet familiar pain returned to the chilly mask of Lisa's face. But she was smiling too. "Nanao-chan," she croaked. "Look who's all grown up."

Nanao heard the voice that she had missed so much, low, rasping and compelling, for the first time on over a hundred years. Lisa seemed exactly the same, even dressed in garishly bright school girl's clothing as she was, those clothes splattered with crimson blood. Those eyes, those jade eyes, they were the same.

Nanao smiled.

But then, the smile vanished from her face, like evaporating rain.

Lisa reached out, and gently touched Nanao's cheek with one bloody hand. Her eyes softened as she looked over her face with an aching longing. "I always figured you'd look more like me."

And Nanao could only gape at her, her eyes huge in her face, with her heart pounding in her chest.


End file.
